One More Time With Feeling
by Whirling
Summary: A collection of short, unrelated Birdflash drabbles inspired by words. Feel free to request stories! [T for swearing in future chapters. Title is from a song by Regina Spektor.]
1. Home

[ **Disclaimer:** Only gonna say this once. If you recognize it, it's not mine! Everything you recognize belongs to DC.

Hey people! This fanfic is going to be a collection of unrelated Birdflash (Wally West/Dick Grayson) drabbles and short stories based off of one or two words. In some of them they will just be best friends, and in others they'll have been in an established relationship. I'll try to make sure that's obvious within the drabbles. I will take requests for this one, if anyone has suggestions for words! Hope you enjoy!

Gonna start out with something short but sweet.

-Kes ]

* * *

**1\. Home**

Dick Grayson was accustomed to his home changing fairly often. He was raised in a traveling circus; they'd be in a completely different country every few weeks. It was normal for him to move around and not get attached to any home apart from his family's trailer. It was for this reason that it took the young boy years to make Wayne Manor feel like home. It hadn't taken long for him to consider Bruce and Alfred family after the loss of his parents, but to replace his home? That took some time.

In fact, Dick continued to think of Haly's Circus as his home until well after he was thirteen. It wasn't that he didn't like Wayne Manor, but... it was too much of a change, too foreign, after his childhood in a circus.

So, later in his life, when he realized that he was kinda in love with his best friend and his best friend was kinda in love with him, he was surprised by how easy it was to find a home nestled safely between Wally West's loving arms.


	2. Roads

[ Yep, another one in less than a day, since I've got five finished now, and I really want to post the fourth one, eheh. This is another relatively short one. Enjoy!

-Kes ]

* * *

**2\. Roads**

With a speedster as your best friend, distance wasn't really that big of an obstacle, and that was something that Dick would forever be grateful for. But, along with Wally's speed, came his eternal impatience with being slow. He couldn't _stand_ it. And so, it was with an incredible reluctance that the Boy Wonder called up his friend...

"Hey, Wally. Do you wanna go camping with me and Bruce?"

"Dude, yeah! That sounds awesome. Where?"

"Erm... the Appalachians. Road trip?"

"...wait, in civvies? How long would that even take? Do you mean I can't use super speed at _all_?"

"Well, yeeahhh... From Gotham, if you zeta'd over, it would be about... Five or six hours?"

"Five or six hours alone in the car with Batman _and_ the Annoying Wonder?! Uh, dude. Are you insane?"

"Oh come on, Bruce isn't that bad."

"_No_. I run myself there or I don't go."

"Fine, suit yourself. Me and Bruce will have fun without you, then."

"And I will be perfectly sane at home fighting my bad guys. Have a good time, dude."

"Too bad. Bye, Wally."

Dick hung up and snickered. It had been Bruce, (surprisingly enough), who had suggested that Wally come camping with them, to which the young teen had immediately blanched as he pictured spending six hours in the car with a speedster.

Thankfully, his plan to discourage Wally had worked.

Hallelujah.


	3. Finals

[ Yoo. Kes here. Finals start tomorrow so this is pretty relevant for me right now, heh. Just a note: Wally's Spanish isn't supposed to be amazing, since he's probably only in like Spanish 2 or 3, and he doesn't have a complete understanding of it, so there might be a few errors there. Hopefully Dick's Spanish is better. Personally, I'm in Spanish 3 Honors, so it's probably not all correct! I used Google translate for the Romanian, which also might have errors, seeing as I have absolutely no knowledge of Romanian xP. And I also realize that Dick is Romani, not Romanian, but I'm fairly sure that Romani is solely a spoken language. Thus, Romanian. Enjoy!

\- Kes ]

* * *

**3.** Finals

Wally stared in disbelief down at his Spanish study guide. _Shit,_ he thought. _I'm fucked. I'm going to fail the Spanish final and then fail the class and the I'll have to retake it. Shit._ He stared helplessly at the paper for a few more moments before a solution smacked him upside the head.

He grabbed his phone and dialed his best friend's cell, a number he knew by heart. Probably because Wally called him to complain about life so often. Oops.

_"What's up, Wal-man?" _Dick Grayson's slightly electronic-sounding voice came over the phone.

"Dude, you're fluent in like fifteen different languages, right? Necesito ayuda con mi español!" (_I need help with my Spanish!)_

The younger teen had the audacity to laugh at him. _"Omule, eu sunt doar fluent în patru limbi... engleză, română, spaniolă şi franceză. Ştiu părţi esenţiale italiană, germană și latină, deşi. Să presupunem că eu vă pot ajuta." (Dude, I'm only fluent in four languages... English, Romanian, Spanish, and French. I know essential parts of Italian, German, and Latin, though. I suppose I can help you out.)_

Wally could've screamed at his friend, he was so stressed out. Instead, he clenched his teeth and growled, "Dude. Not helping. At all."

Dick snickered. _"Okay, fine. ¿Cómo puedo ayudarte con tu tarea de Español?" (How can I help you with your Spanish homework?)_

"Um... ¿Cómo se haces el pretérito?" _(How do you do the preterite?)_

_"Bien, primero..." (Well, first...)_


	4. Misery

[ Not much to say here. This one's a little bit longer.

\- Kes ]

* * *

**4\. Misery**

"Wallyyy. Waaalllyyyy," Dick moaned loudly from their bedroom, where he had been sleeping for most of the Saturday morning.

"What?" the speedster snapped. "I'm doing homework." As he had been for the past three hours. College was exhausting.

"I don't feel very good," came the slightly quieter reply. "I think I have something. A fever or the flu or something."

"Well, don't get it near me. I have to go to class tomorrow."

"Waaaalllyy."

"_What_, Dick?"

"Can you get me some medicine…? And blankets?"

Wally heaved a loud, exasperated sigh to make sure that his boyfriend heard him.

"You have superspeed for a reason, you knnooowww," Dick whined.

"What, to take care of _every_ single little thing you need?"

"Someone's snippy today," Dick muttered, and Wally had to strain his ears to hear him.

"Fine. Fine, fine, _fine_, I'll get you stuff. Be right back," Wally groaned as he saved the paper he was working on and ran around their apartment, finding various things that he thought Dick might want, and ended up in the darkness of their bedroom. Squinting, he threw the blankets he'd collected onto the bed, and felt around for the light switch. Once he'd found it and light filled the room, the younger boy moaned and curled his body further into the covers, burying his face away from the light source.

"Turn it ooofffffff," Dick moaned. "My head hurts."

"You know, for someone who claims to be too old to be called the Boy Wonder anymore, you sure are whiny," Wally remarked, flicking the light off.

"Only Robin's the Boy Wonder," came the murmured reply. "And that's Tim. Not me."

"Yeah, yeah. Here, let me put these blankets around you." The speedster gently wrapped the soft blankets around his boyfriend's curled up body. Though his currently 19-year-old body was a far cry from his wimpy, pre-pubescent years, Richard Grayson had yet to grow taller than Wallace West, a fact that Wally was extremely proud of and that Dick was secretly happy about. "There, is that better?"

Dick mumbled something unintelligible, his face probably buried in a pillow.

"What was that?"

"Still cold." A pause. "Cuddle?" There was a hint of hopefulness in the single word, although as muffled as it was, Wally could have imagined it.

"...yeah, okay, sure. I guess I can take a break for a little while." Dick made a happy noise as Wally clambered into the bed, throwing the blankets over the two heroes and snuggling up into Dick's back. "Try to sleep, okay?"

"Mhm." He sounded half asleep already, so hopefully there wouldn't be any problems there. "G'night."

"Night, Dick." Wally closed his eyes for a few moments, then opened them and said in an accusing tone, "Richard John Grayson, if you get me sick too, I will carve your eyes out, deep fry them, and feed them to you for dinner."

"Mhm."

"I'm not kidding."

"Mmhhhm."


	5. Aveal

[ This one was a request from 3DPhantom! I'm not sure if I used the word the right way, sorry xP but I just started writing and this is what came out. Hope you enjoy!

\- Kes ]

* * *

**5\. Aveal **(to reveal something false)

Robin couldn't help it that he noticed. He was the protege of the greatest detective in the world; how could he _not_ notice?

Kid Flash regularly showed up to Mount Justice with a number of bruises or scratches or other random injuries. At first, Robin didn't find anything odd about it. They were heroes - Wally had superspeed. Of course he would have bruises and cuts and the like. But he also healed much quicker than the average person. A bruise would be gone within a few hours, depending on how deep it was, but still. He couldn't be fighting crime so often that the bruises would be a constant, if they disappeared in a few hours anyways.

So where was he getting them?

Who was _hurting_ his best friend?

Robin would make them pay.

* * *

"Wally," the masked hero said as he approached the speedster, who was currently sneaking food out of the fridge. It was after midnight.

"Yeah, Rob?" He had the decency to look slightly guilty, but proceeded to find a spoon and scoop peanut butter out of the jar and into his mouth.

Raising an eyebrow, Robin said, "I thought we were saving that for sandwiches this weekend?"

Wally shrugged. "Oh well. What's up, bro?"

The younger boy shifted his feet, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Can I talk to you about something?" He didn't mean to make Wally suspicious by showing his apprehension, but it couldn't be helped now. He just needed to make sure that his best friend was okay. He needed to make sure that what he suspected had happened was wrong, completely utterly _wrong_.

"Uh, yeah, sure?" He finished the peanut butter and put the spoon in the dishwasher, screwed the lid back on, and placed the jar back in the refrigerator. "...what's up?" he repeated.

"Um." Robin paused, unsure how to continue, but ultimately decided to be blunt about it. "Look. Batman taught me, okay? I notice things. I put little things together and find the truth."

"...yes?" Now Wally was looking uncomfortable.

"Are… are you okay? Is everything alright? You keep showing up with bruises on your legs and scratches in random places and the occasional black eye, which, _yeah,_ I understand that you're a hero and that you fight bad guys and get hurt, but this is _constant_, Wally! Those little things should heal within a few hours, half a day at the very _most_, but there are always new ones!" His voice cracked a bit, and the boy lowered his voice. "Listen. I- I care about you, okay? You're my best friend. I just… I just want to make sure you're okay." Robin looked at the ground, fiddling with his gloves. "Don't aveal anything to me, okay?"

Wally was tense, anxious, and he looked almost like a caged animal. "I-," he cut himself off. "Aveal?"

"Aveal - to reveal something false."

"I'm… It's not what you think, okay Rob?" Wally breathed out slowly. "I'm not… being abused, or anything. I promise." He fought hard to keep his voice steady. "Sometimes I get bullied. Not a lot, but… there's not much I can do about it without revealing that I'm Kid Flash. And I'm reckless. I run and then I can't stop, so I end up… running into something, y'know? I'm clumsy, too," he huffed out. "That's it. I'm fine, dude. I promise."

Robin continued to look at the ground. Was he lying? He couldn't tell. But… he would get help if he really was being abused, right? He had to be telling the truth. Wally wouldn't lie to his best friend. Right?

"Okay. Okay, KF. Thanks," he looked up with the slightest smile.

"No problem, Rob."


	6. Marriage

[ Um, long time no see? Yeeeah, it's been a few months! Sorta lost my motivation to write for a while. Right now I have literally 0 motivation to move, draw, write, do homework, talk to anyone, etc... buut I had an idea for a Birdflash drabble and I realized that I hadn't updated this in forever. This one was something I wrote a long time ago, before I even posted this fic, but I just finished the last bit of it today. Enjoy?

\- Kes ]

* * *

**6\. Marriage**

It wasn't the subject of marriage itself that worried him. Wally _wanted _to marry Dick. Wasn't he the one who had brought it up in the first place? But still. They weren't normal people, they didn't have the safety net of a regular life to comfort them, to assure them that neither would come to harm. They were heroes. They put themselves in danger every single day. There was a constant threat circling them like vultures, waiting for the one day that they'd be able to land and take advantage of a free meal.

What if something happened?

How could one live without the other?

Not that they hadn't been heroes for years. Dick had been in the business since he was nine, and Wally since he was eleven. They'd seen their fair share of trouble, yet here they were still, safe and sound (for the most part).

But Wally couldn't stand the possibility. It was driving him mad. What if one of them got a head injury and had amnesia, and they forgot _everything_? What if one of them was so badly hurt that they'd have to give up their masks? How would they be able to deal with the other one putting himself in danger, forcing the first to stay home and wait for news? What if one of them actually _died_? What if, what if, _what if_…

All of a sudden, Wally was desperate to see Dick. To talk to him.

Unfortunately, the 20-year-old was stuck in his classes. College was a bitch.

Wally, meanwhile, had graduated earlier that year (thank god), and was shadowing his uncle in his forensic science job. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew that it would be something to do with chemical science. It had been his hobby since he was, like ten. It was how he'd figured out Barry's notes for his experiments on superspeed, and how he'd replicated the Flash's experiment himself. Of _course_ he was going to pursue that as an adult. He just didn't know where yet. He'd figure it out eventually. For now he was preoccupied with being Kid Flash. (He really needed to find a new hero name. He was 22 - _Kid _Flash was a little… contradictory.)

Dick was studying law, of all things. He wanted to be a police officer. A _police officer_. No, being Nightwing and flying around the city beating up bad guys all night wasn't enough, of course he wanted to do it during the daytime too. _Of course_.

Wally hated the idea of his boyfriend being a police officer, but he couldn't stop him. Not like Bruce hadn't tried already. If Batman couldn't do it, there was no way little ol' Kid Flash could.

Wally yawned, scratching his head and opening the fridge to see if there was anything he could scavenge out and eat. _Let's see… We have an almost completely brown banana, leftover Chinese food, and… _he opened the freezer, _frozen peas. Wow, what a selection_. The takeout was Dick's; he'd kill the speedster if he so much as thought about touching it, so Wally opted for the banana instead. _We need to get food, _he made a mental note.

The two heroes had become a "thing" almost three years ago now. They'd gotten an apartment in Bludhaven a year ago. The existence of Zeta tubes and superspeed had let them see each other virtually whenever they wanted, but they wanted to be closer. And after Dick's fight with Bruce, they decided to get away from their families for a while. Thus, the apartment in Bludhaven.

Wally loved living with Dick. He loved being so constantly close to him. It was amazing. Sure, they'd had a few disagreements (it was unavoidable in any relationship), but they'd had no lasting effect.

They even patrolled together sometimes. Usually, Kid Flash joined the Flash in Central City, but occasionally he would join Nightwing as he stopped muggings, thefts, the usual.

Wally wondered if any villains - Bludhaven's, Central's, or Gotham's - knew or had suspicions about their true relationship, or if everyone just thought they were still best friends. The two made a conscious effort to keep it a secret while in masks, for fear of someone like the Joker or Professor Zoom (Wally shivered) taking advantage of their feelings for the other. That would be _bad_. Wally shivered again at the thought, and decided to move his thoughts on to a different subject.

Actually, the same subject. He wanted to marry Dick, but he also didn't want to risk losing him. Hard choices, hard choices - but not really. There was no way Dick would leave him voluntarily. The only way they would ever be separated was by force.

Not that Wally wanted to test that theory. _Ever_.

But in all honesty, what did he have to lose? If Dick said no, he would have a good reason for it, and Wally would respect his decision and slow down a bit.

He would do anything to keep Dick Grayson happily by his side, no matter how long it took or how hard he would have to work.

Wally would never let him go.


	7. Inflicted

[ IT'S 3 AM AND I'VE BEEN WRITING THIS SINCE LIKE 9:30 PM there are probably mistakes, please point them out if you notice any! I had this idea and I remembered that I hadn't updated this in months, so I decided to try writing it... It turned out a bit longer than I thought it would originally, the set-up and entire first part ended up being waayy more involved, and it's actually longer than the part I wanted to write, so? okay?

anyway, on a more serious note. **TRIGGER WARNING FOR SELF HARM. **There is **SELF HARM **in this drabble, please be warned and maybe skip this one if you need to!

_italicized part is a flashback_

\- Kes ]

* * *

**7\. Inflicted**

It was 4 AM by the time Batman and Robin got back to the Batcave. It had been a long night for both of them, as well as a number of Gotham citizens.

The night's patrol had started off relatively quiet, for Gotham. Batman and Robin stayed together, stopping exactly three attempted robberies. All in all, pretty quiet.

Until the fires started.

The first one had been somewhat on the outskirts of the city, and although the two vigilantes had seen the smoke and flames, they had called the fire department and let them deal with it. They weren't properly equipped to fight fires, only crime.

Except the fires _were_ the crime.

They hadn't really realized until the third fire started, but these were intentional fires. Arson. And they were scattered all around the city, as far away from the others as they could get, forcing Robin and Batman to split up and help where they could. And it wasn't until the fourth fire, which Batman had gone to, that they realized the fires were being set by Firefly.

_Firefly. Once he heard the name, his knowledge of the villain rose up to the front of his head. Firefly, aka Garfield Lynns. Former movie effects specialist. Pyromaniac. Abusive childhood. Hadn't he been in jail? Either way, looked like he wasn't now, and Robin had a job to do._

_At the moment, he was swinging through the buildings on his way to the most recent fire, the fifth one. It had been closer to him, so Batman had told him to see what he could do to help._

"_Be careful, Robin. Firefly isn't on Joker or Two-Face's level, but he's still dangerous."_

"_Roger roger, Batman."_

_The 13 year old alighted on the roof of the building across from the one on fire, assessing the scene. There was a firetruck, but only one visible firefighter, the one who was using the hose to douse the flames. Robin assumed that there were more inside getting people out, and swung down quickly to talk to the firefighter outside._

_Cape flaring out behind him as he approached, Robin called out to the man, "Do you know how many people are inside? How many firefighters are in there getting them out?"_

_Turning his attention to the masked boy as he stopped beside the hose, the firefighter replied loudly, "There's two firefighters. Not sure how many people, but there are a few in the windows, if you can get them down!" With that, he turned back towards the burning building._

_Looking up, Robin saw a flash of color at the top floor of the three story building, and then it was gone. He didn't see anyone else, so moving fast, he put on his gas filtering mask, and used his grappling hook to get him up to the window. _

"_Hello?" he called out, searching for movement among the thick smoke. The fire hadn't gotten in this room yet, but from the amount of smoke, it was very close. "Hello, is someone in here?"_

_Robin heard a muffled "yes," and a young boy - maybe five or six - ran out of a bathroom connected to the room, up to the Boy Wonder. "Robin!" he exclaimed with a hint of excitement, though his face showed nothing but terror. "I can't find my mom, or my little sister-" he was cut off by a sudden coughing fit, shoving his face into his elbow. _

"_I'll find them. But I need to get you out first, okay?" Robin jumped inside the room, and knelt down. "Get on my back," he said quickly, knowing that he needed to get back up there to find the boy's family. The kid,sensing his urgency, held on tightly as Robin sent out a line to the adjacent building, and swung them safely down to the ground. Running now to the group of people who had been inside the building, he glanced up at the little boy. "Is your family here?" he asked as he got the boy off his back._

"_No, they're not… Robin, help them!" the boy's eyes watered with tears as he looked desperately up at Robin, and Robin felt no hesitation, only determination and urgency. _

"_Stay here," he ordered, and he ran back up the building, ignoring the sound of his name behind him. Again using his grappling hook, he found himself back inside the room. The temperature was even hotter now, and the door was on fire. Looking desperately around the room, he took the gas mask out of his mouth momentarily, and shouted, "Can anyone hear me? Is there anyone in here?" _

_When he got no audible response, he replaced the gas mask and was about to go outside and jump to the next window, when the floor underneath him shifted oddly. He froze for half a second, looked down, and then the floor underneath him was gone, and he was falling. _

_Robin made an attempt to relax his body, knowing that the more he tensed up the more damage hitting the ground would do, but the fall was too unexpected and he _hated _falling. _

_He didn't remember hitting the ground._

* * *

He did, however, remember jolting awake in the Batmobile, disoriented and confused and _hurting_.

When he asked, Batman told him what happened.

Apparently, it had been a miracle that he had lived. The building had been rendered extremely unstable from the fire, but Robin had been standing in a lucky spot. He'd fallen, yes, and presumably been knocked unconscious upon impact, but none of the falling debris had hit him or fallen on top of him, and his conveniently fireproof cape had protected him from the worst of the flames. He'd also fallen directly in the path of one of the firefighters who had been inside the building, who had been unable to find any more citizen, and was able to carry Robin's light body out with no problem.

Except, less than a minute after the firefighter had gotten out of the building, it collapsed.

The last firefighter had still been inside, along with at least two other people, not counting the mother and sister of the boy he'd helped, whose bodies had still not been found.

Robin had remained unconscious for three hours until waking up in the Batmobile.

Five other fires had been set in that time, and Firefly had gotten away.

Gotham's emergency services were still counting the bodies.

Robin felt sick.

* * *

Alfred helped Bruce with his injuries first, before turning to Dick, who had been sitting on the chair of the Batcomputer, staring off into space, still in slight shock.

Apparently, he had two broken ribs.

He'd barely noticed.

Alfred wrapped his chest, put soothing cream on his burns, and told him sternly but softly to get some rest, and not to aggravate any of his injuries in the next few days. Dick nodded absently, and walked slowly up to his room.

* * *

It was 4:36 AM. Dick still felt sick, but also detached and numb.

This whole mess was his fault. If he hadn't fallen, if he had _moved_ or _reacted_ or done _something_, he could have stayed conscious and been able to find the boy's mother and sister and then helped the firefighter who was still inside get _out_ and save the two people whom he had been carrying out and no one would have _died_ but they _did_, and it was his fault.

He had felt the floor move, he should have known that the building was unstable and he should have been more careful and how could he have been so _stupid?_

And if Robin hadn't been _unconscious_ he would have been able to help Batman with the rest of the fires and maybe they would have been able to catch up with Firefly but they definitely would have saved more lives but they _didn't_ and it was all his fault and he couldn't stand this -

Somehow he found himself standing in front of the mirror in his bathroom. Without quite knowing what he was doing, he opened one of the drawers and took out a batarang that was hidden inside of it. There were stashes like this in almost every room, just in case. Just in case.

Dick stared at the sheen of black metal for a few minutes, burns aching and chest feeling heavy. He couldn't breathe very well, probably because of how his chest was wrapped. His head was pounding. He closed his eyes tightly. He wanted - he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted, but he didn't want to feel like this, he needed something to ground him, focus him on something else, and he didn't know what to do, so he whipped the batarang up to his shoulder and dragged it across his arm with a quick motion. The sharp clarity of the fresh pain was immediate, and he breathed out slowly, opening his eyes. He thought solely about the clear pain radiating from his shoulder and about nothing else, and the second his thoughts wandered to the tear-filled eyes of that little boy he gritted his teeth and drew another sharp line across his shoulder, a bit deeper, so that the clarity would last longer.

And then he realized what he was doing, and sat down abruptly on the floor, staring at the cabinets in front of him, paying no mind to the blood slowly rolling down his arm.

Five minutes later, he was aware of the rushing sound of a speedster running, and then with no warning, Wally was standing in the doorway of his bathroom, already talking at speeds no human could reach.

"Rob, Dick, are you okay? I was watching the news and I saw the fires and I saw you save that kid and I saw you go back in but then you were _unconscious _and the news had no idea what happened to you and then Batman picked you up and I called you like five billion times and -"

He cut off and froze, staring at Dick's arm. Dick was too exhausted, mentally and physically, to try to cover up the cuts or to deny anything. The batarang in his hand and the newness of the injuries said enough. He shifted away from Wally and stared stiffly at the ground. "Please go away," he requested softly, his voice cracking.

"Dick…" Wally trailed off, unmoving.

"Go _away_."

There was a moment of silence, and then suddenly Dick found himself on his bed. Wally had cleaned off his arm and put two large bandaids where the blood had been in about 2 seconds, and Dick curled his knees up into his chest and hid his face from his best friend.

"Dick."

"_Please…_" he whispered, holding his knees tighter.

"Hey, bud…," Wally sat down gently on the bed next to his friend. "I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me, alright? Even if I have to sit here for a week." He paused for a moment. "Talk to me?"

The small hero took a deep, shuddering breath, but remained tense and silent.

Wally slowly pulled his friend into his side, letting his hold remain gentle, so that Dick could pull away if he wanted to.

Dick sniffed, and the silence dragged on.

Fifteen minutes passed, and half of Dick's mind was conflicted on whether or not to talk to Wally, and the other half was remotely amazed that the speedster had managed to stay both still _and_ silent for so long.

Another five minutes. Dick took as much of a breath as he could with his broken ribs. "Please don't tell anyone," the dark haired boy said, his voice muffled.

"I won't," Wally promised. "Unless you keep doing it."

Dick huffed slightly, pulling away from Wally's side and looking at the teen beside him through bleary, tired eyes. "I- I don't-" He broke off. "I don't know why I did it," he whispered, staring at his hands. "I just-" He started breathing shallowly, trembling slightly.

"Hey, hey," Wally tried to calm him down, taking Dick's clammy hands into his own warm ones. "Listen, it's going to be alright, okay?"

Dick laughed; a forced, broken sound. "It is?"

"Yeah, it is," Wally said adamantly, with a slight smile. "You know how I know?"

"How?" he sniffed.

Wally slid off the bed. "I'm gonna take off my pants now; don't worry, I'm wearing boxers." Dick was a bit confused, but nodded.

The speedster swiftly took off his jeans - yes, apparently he ran all the way to Wayne Manor in _jeans_, to reveal…

"Oh. Shit, Wally." Dick uncurled from himself a bit to focus on Wally's legs. Among the many freckles that dotted his skin were numerous scars marring his legs; they were faded and obviously old, but there was no mistaking what they were from. "Shit. Why…," he trailed off, not wanting to pry; but Wally was his best friend, why was he just finding out about these scars now?

Looking slightly uncomfortable now, with his legs exposed to the cool air, Wally slipped his pants back on at superspeed and was back on the bed again before Dick could blink. There, he shrugged. "It was a long time ago. I was 11. You know how my family was… I didn't know how to handle it. Uncle Barry helped me stop after I started living with him, and I found alternatives, better ways to get my feelings out than hurting myself." He took a deep breath. "Dick, I know things are hard, but I _really _don't want your body to end up looking like mine. I want to help you. I promise I won't tell anyone, as long as you promise to come to me and talk to me whenever you need to. Okay?"

Dick sniffed again, hesitating, but maneuvered his body so that he was pressed against Wally's side once again, and Wally hugged him.

"I'm sorry, Wals. I promise."


End file.
